Classic Ads: Stuck on Stick-Ons!

As an enthusiastic new fan of comics in the early-to-mid 1970's, my fascination for superheroes extended beyond the comics themselves and into a dizzying array of merchandise sporting their image. Some of my favorite products at the time were Mego action figures, Slurpee Cups, t-shirts, and superhero bubblegum stickers.  However, as cool as that stuff was, there was an ad for a product that seemed to put them all to shame: Marvel-Hero Stick-Ons!

I craved those giant stickers like nothing else!  I just had to paste them on my walls, doors, notebooks, lampshades, lunchbox, or whatver!  Trouble is, my mom took one look at the ad and gave me the instant "thumbs down", reasoning (correctly) that the stickers would probably be murder to get off the walls. Of course, I was dumbfounded she couldn't see the awesome possibilities of affixing giant Marvel superheroes to the walls of our home (the nerve!)....but I got over it.  

Still...I wonder if anyone else's mom actually did let them order this set of stick-ons from "Our Way Studios".  Any fellow old-timers like me out there who had the Marvel (or DC) Hero Stick-Ons?...or even saw what they looked like on someone else's wall?  Were they anywhere as cool as the ad implied...or did they just limply peel off in a matter of hours? 

Comments

[Servo]

Mark, your series on old ads and merhcandise was fun, and it made me wax nostalgic today.

I'm sorry to say that I never possessed these stickers, but they vaguely remind me of those FATHEAD giant wall stickers you can get now.

I can say that I did own the old Marvel "Shrinkie Dinks" collection. These were plastic-like decorations you would paint and then bake in your oven to make things like keychains or penholders. Unless you kept them on a shelf, they would crack in half if you actually used them as that or any other usage that invloved weighing them down. So my guess, in the same vein, is that said stickers didn't last very long.

Your reference to Slurpee cups also brought memories of having an old Kirby-style ODIN Slurpee cup. I was maybe 6 years old and had no clue who Odin was - one those classic cases where my mom got me the "least" identifiable Marvel character at the local 7-Eleven.

[Ken J]

I had these and they were awesome. The large stickers were pretty big and they looked great. I can recall that the colors on them were pretty vivid. I know I had at least one stuck to a door, probably Iron Man, and it stayed there until we moved from Minneapolis.

Before we moved they were finally defeated by their arch-enemy: Dad With Putty Knife Man.

[Al Bigley]

I recall waiting for that DC set to come in the mail..One of the first comics items I ever sent a way for..Took an ETERNITY to arrive, and came in a giant mailing tube! I had TWO sets of the DC stick-ons, and one set of the Marvel ones....

My Mom actually let me stick the Neal Adams-drawn BATMAN sticker to the front bumper of our family pickup truck!

I also affixed the Gil Kane GREEN LANTERN to the back of a vinyl jacket I had. I was the hit of the 3rd grade playground.

The CONAN sticker from the Marvel set? I gave it to my next-door neighbors, who stuck it to their bedroom door. It had to WEAR off, over several years...heh.

Also had them on my lunchbox...

Anyone recall the smaller store packages of these things? GREAT graphics by the great artists..Some poses in the smaller packs where different from the large sheets...

Al Bigley

[Al Bigley]

Also, Our Way Studios made small cardboard stand-ups of DC and Marvel heroes, as well as the big jointed "pose them by your door" standees of Batman, Spidey, etc...

[Al Bigley]

Also, run a Google Picture search with "Our Way Studios" to see all the great 70s/80s products they offered to comics fans!

Al Bigley

[Pat Curley]

DC briefly marketed stickers of their covers sometime around 1970; I remember buying a few packs of those. They were sold like baseball cards of that era in wax packs, with maybe five cards each containing four covers, roughly stamp-sized. Unfortunately, the covers were just late 1960s DC, which I generally had already, so it didn't hold that much interest for me. Sure would like to have an unopened pack of those now, though!

[Mark Engblom]

Wow, thanks for the great info and stories, guys....especially Al's Batman sticker on the family car! Insane!

You know...I should try tracking some of these down just to experience them. What do you think the odds are of finding some?

To the eBay-mobile, Robin!

[suedenim]

I had both the Marvel and DC stickers. I think my mom let me use one door (the inner door to a storage room, IIRC) for stickers and such, which included a lot of those Marvel trading stickers with the funny word balloons.

I can't recall where exactly all the Our Way Studios stickers went, though I do remember the giant-sized Green Arrow adorning a plastic wastebasket for a great many years.